DISQUS

chasclifton · 2 years ago

Let's be charitable So Jeanne Assam might have had job trouble nearly a decade ago?

I am not a Christian, but this could be a time to remember Jesus' admonition, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" (at the woman taken in adultery).

She was in a tough situation last Sunday, and she did the right thing. I would not care if she were an ex-convict. Or a Republican. :-)

Truthteller · 2 years ago

So what?????????? Why do you feel as if you have to badmouth her with an incident from her past?  It doesn't change a thing about what she did to stop the shooter.  Nor does the fact that he, himself, fired the bullet that resulted in his own quick death.  On that day, she acted correctly and courageously and saved a bunch of lives.  That is enough to make her a hero.  Why you feel the need to trash her and disparage what she did is beyond understanding.  Was it because those she defended were Christian, and probably more conservative than you like?

You really ought to be ashamed of yourself for trying to turn this into some kind of scandal story.

oldbogus · 2 years ago

Did the right thing Good point. This is exactly what Jesus did in places and times of worship and advocated to his disciples: cut off the centurion's ear when being arrested, take up arms against persecution, and stone those who fall. That "turn the other cheek" stuff is just window dressing.

If we weren't meant to defend ourselves violently, God wouldn't have given us MAC-10s.

Erin Rosa · 2 years ago

Scandal? I wouldn't go that far. Certainly this story is not meant to negate the bravery in Ms. Assam's actions at the church.

But the questions still remain: was she fired, and if so, what was it really for? I think the questions are significant.

moon · 2 years ago

Why Pick on a Lady Hero? Looks like the anti-gun lobby is more interested in smearing her than anything. She swore at someone and lied about it.  We have white male officers tasering fleeing marijuana growers from Louisville, CO, and they die, and nothing comes of it. Lets get perspective. This looks like an attack on a woman as much as anything. SOrry, heros come in all shapes and genders. m.m.

bmenezes · 2 years ago

Asking questions is our right and our duty Sorry, but some of you seem to be so conditioned by a compliant Bush-era media that you get a little uncomfortable when a journalist starts asking questions or making relevant contextual facts known that don't square with your immediate, sound-bite vision.

Ms. Assam's past as related to her performance as an armed enforcement person (in this case, a security guard) is relevant background. Is it the whole story, and does it somehow diminish her apparent bravery in the halls of New Life Church? Of course not, and this story is not written in a way that implies so. Rather, it takes a pretty one-dimensional portrait painted by the mainstream media and gives it just a little more depth. If you're interested in Ms. Assam's story, you should be interested in all of it, not just the parts that make you feel immediately warm and fuzzy. Did it ever occur to you that perhaps she had a troubled past that may have led her to a spiritual awakening, which put her on a road that led to New Life Church? Stories like this one make one more curious about a woman who, like most of us, is probably a pretty complex, multifaceted being. And without the facts of her past, you can't possibly have a full idea of her present.

Truthteller · 2 years ago

The questions are irrelevant. They had nothing to do with the recent incident.  They had nothing to do with anything currently relevant.  It's just a trash job, and you should be ashamed of yourself, along with the others in the media who felt compelled to report this non-news.

Truthteller · 2 years ago

Wake up. And smell what you're shoveling. 

News Flash - this story has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with President Bush.  Good God, does EVERYTHING have to be partisan and political with you?  This is pure National Enquirer-like tabloid "journalism."  It's disgraceful, and for no purpose other than to personally trash someone, in this case someone who was a hero for saving a bunch of lives.  Ah, but, of course, they were religious lives - and that really seems to bother people for some reason.  Perhaps you'd better consider why that bugs you so much.

Zappatero · 2 years ago

seems like a pretty straight report to me good job, Erin.

tiny violin · 2 years ago

Barf, Menezes You said: "Rather, it takes a pretty one-dimensional portrait painted by the mainstream media and gives it just a little more depth."

You mean it takes one detail -- a detail mentioned already in AP reports (does that not count as "mainstream media"?) -- and magnifies it out of proportion to the context.

This is an attack on Assam's character. She's not a cop now, she's a private citizen thrust into the public eye because she had the balls to return fire when under fire.

Pat yourself on the back for your "hard-hitting, investigative journalism" until you dislocate your shoulder. That won't change the fact that you're just dishing innuendo here, inappropriately scrutinizing the personal life of a private citizen, drawing conclusions from scant details regarding a years-old confidential personnel action that was so minor that the police department saw no reason to maintain records of it.

You guys are cheap, petty and astoundingly wrong to post this dreck.

Zappatero · 2 years ago

OMIGOD - Librul Media Alert!!!!!! That radical, commie-lib, traitorous Colorado Springs Gazette reported on the same story!

Truthteller · 2 years ago

This coming from the guy who thinks.... ....that the murder victims deserved what they got because they didn't give that evil murderer a bed for the night.  Yeah, Zappatero, we're really going to listen to you.....not.

And how interesting that you didn't have the guts to take any criticism about your position over on PeakDems. 

Truthteller · 2 years ago

And although it is obvious The Gazette shouldn't have printed this tabloid trash, either.

Truthteller · 2 years ago

For those who don't know Here's what Zappatero said over on PeakDems that created a firestorm of criticism on that blog and on the radio....so much so that the blog cut off commentary and deleted previous critical comments:

"Just like Jesus...

...turned away at the door.....given no love.....given no shelter from the cold.

Yet many will cheer a bullet in his head."

tiny violin · 2 years ago

Christ... If she had been a freakin' fry cook who cussed at a patron...or, HEAVEN FORBID, a teacher who cussed at a student and got fired...I'm sure we'd be reading these same hit pieces that raise "legitimate questions" about Assam's character.

Fact is, her job history has nothing to do with the incident on Sunday.

Where are the in-depth investigative reports regarding the job histories of the armed security guards who *failed* to fire at Matthew Murray? There were plenty of people on the church campus with guns. Why didn't they do anything? Was their cowardice in any way related to having been fired from previous jobs? The public demands answers!

Obviously, there's more to the petty media fixation on Assam. Assam is a woman, a movie-star attractive woman, a brave woman, a woman who knows how to use deadly force in the appropriate circumstances. When faced with Assam, the deeply internalized misogyny in our culture and our media kicks into high gear. Take her down, sisters.

Pathetic.

Notachanceatall · 2 years ago

Go back to your blog and continue to hide behind your login requirements n/t

Notachanceatall · 2 years ago

So please enlighten me here How does what this young lady did some 10 years ago advance this story?

Where is the tie in between what she did as a law enforcement officer in Minnesota have to do with what Ms. Assam's conduct here in Colorado Springs as a private citizen employed by New Life Church to provide a level of security for the pastor?

These are relevant questions to you as well. Care to reply?

Notachanceatall · 2 years ago

Freedom of Speech only applies...... ...when you agree with the "progressives" way of thinking.

I found it very humorous that someone locked the site from free (anon) replies. I guess those folks are not near as thick skinned as they portend to be.

Big bad coffee boy had to be the heavy and shutdown all those naysayers because it (we) were not advancing their adjenda.

It is ok to disagree on that site as long as it is against us terrible ole' rethugs and not against all that is progressive and pure. Blecch.......

Truthteller · 2 years ago

What was REALLY funny..... ....was that they stopped the commenting and deleted posts after someone reminded them of what DEMOCRAT Harry Truman said about "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen."  LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!  The irony of that action just pours from PeakDems.

Notachanceatall · 2 years ago

Ooooooohhhhh SNAP! n/t

WeatherDem · 2 years ago

Indeed they are Nowhere in the piece did you call her names or question her motives.  Once I heard she was in Minnesota law enforcement, I wanted to know how that was related to her shooting somebody in a Colorado church.  This helps fill in some background.

Gesz, the 'hero'-worship in this country is out of control.

Matt G · 2 years ago

Disgusting. I would be ashamed to go into the past of Jeanne Assam like that.

Did I suspect that she had a dark past in her police career that ended after 14 years, during which time she said that she reached the "lowest of the lows," and embraced her faith?

Yep.

Was it any of my business?

Nope.

10 years ago, her department let her go, for reasons that were between it and her. Okay.

3.5 days ago, she did what others there could or would not do, and after she verbally tried to get an active shooter who was a serial mass-murderer to put down his weapons, she defended herself and hundreds of others, by advancing on him, and skillfully putting rounds from her weapon into the threat.

This is now textbook response to active shooters, and a procedure which we didn't have back in the days of Columbine. It requires guts, alacrity, and skill.

Don't like that she killed him in a church? Well, I hate that he made her shoot him. I hate that he had already killed and wounded others. I hate that he took his own life in that church (for indeed, she stopped him, but he killed himself).

She's saying absolutely nothing self-agrandizing. She's deferring all pride.  Yes, she acknowledges what happened.

No, she's not actively chatting about how and why she terminated employment as a cop.

You know what? That's *her* past. If she were trying to put herself into the limelight, she'd be a public figure that you'd have the right to get picky about her past with. But she was thrust into the forefront, against her will.

And while she prevailed in that encounter, please don't forget that *SHE* was the victim. Matthew Murray attacked her church, and pointed his weapon at *her*, before she defended herself and her fellow worshipers.

Digging that far back into her past (her veracity about what happened is not at question; there were plenty of witnesses and there is plenty of physical evidence that points to the truth being exactly as she spoke it) is like looking into the sexual history of a rape victim.

Please leave the woman alone. I think she'd appreciate it. I know that I would.